Takuya
refused to be distracted.
He
needed to focus today.
At
the moment, he was staring at the screen of his laptop where a game of Tetris
was unfolding. It was engaging enough to keep his mind focused and ready to
work, but banal enough not to tire him out and fun enough to keep him from
dying of boredom.
Meanwhile,
Miku was crouching by his seat. He was not touching the guitarist, even as he
was leaned in so close that his nose discharged a spark of static electricity
to Takuya’s cheek when he’d first shown up. The singer was staring unblinkingly
at the shifting white of Takuya’s eye as he whispered in a nasal whine, “Nee,
Takuya. Wha’cha doing?”
Takuya
ignored him.
Miku
was only doing this to annoy him. They were both bored after all, and of the two
of them, only Takuya had a functioning laptop. Miku’s phone had died about an
hour ago, so he was hitting new levels of desperation. Waiting around for
ridiculous amounts of time in drab conference rooms that smelled like old
coffee and bad catering didn’t scream ‘rockstar’ in the way that other aspects
of the life did, but it was a part every bit as vital to the lifestyle as
playing stages in arenas before thousands of screaming fans. But it was
certainly boring.
Miku’s
phone had died, leaving him with nothing to do. Takuya was on his laptop, Bou
and Kanon had each other to amuse and they were teasing Teruki who was on his
phone texting Hitomi. Miku was just bored.
His
nasal whine was still in Takuya’s ears, so close that the guitarist could feel
the vibrations of the singer’s voice as they hit his skin. But Takuya refused
to be distracted.
“Nee,
Takuya. You have a laptop; with Internet access. Why aren’t you on the
Internet? If you go on the Internet, we could do something, like watch a movie, or read fanfiction, or troll
forums, or look at cat pictures, or-”
“Miku,
shut-up.”
Takuya
wasn’t distracted, and going on the Internet would be a sure fire way to ruin
that. He needed to stay focused for the contract settlement that would be
taking place as soon as PSC’s executives finished consulting with their
lawyers. The major details had already been finalized, An Café’s legal agents
had been handling that part all week, only the finer aspects were left and
Takuya was not about to let Miku, or Bou for that matter, weasel in some stupid
detail for the upcoming tour that would force Takuya into some ridiculous
costume or to play along with another idiotic stunt.
Keeping
himself safe required focus, and Takuya refused to be distracted.
“Nee,
Takuya,” Miku whispered brightly, ignoring Takuya wholesale. “Bou’s phone is
ringing. Bou is checking the caller ID. I think it’s Akira-chan. Nee, Takuya,
it is Akira-chan. I like Akira-chan.
She’s fun and nice and pretty and-”
“Yah,
Takuya!” Miku was interrupted by Bou’s shout. “Akira-chan thinks she left her
umbrella in your car when you drove her home from practice. Have you seen it?”
“Yeah,”
Takuya responded immediately. “I’ve got it. When does she want it back?”
Bou
gave him a look, one filled with sass and snark. “I am not going to be your
little in-between. Ask her yourself.”
An
Café’s pretty ex-guitarist hopped off Kanon’s lap and threw the phone so that
it slid across the table and skidded to a stop by Takuya’s hand. The current An
Cafe guitarist picked it up to hear Akira frantically asking, “Bou? What
happened? Are you okay?”
Akira
was Bou’s self-assigned, bully-repelling-ninja, and her first instinct was to
assume that someone unpleasant had happened upon him in the hallways. Takuya
was quick to allay her fears, “Bou’s fine. He’s not at school today. He’s here
at the office with us for a meeting with management.”
“Takuya-kun?”
Akira asked, recognizing his voice.
“At
your service,” he replied, his smile making it plainly into his voice.
Akira
was about to say something more, but before she could she squeaked with
something halfway between a sneeze and a hiccup. It was an adorable sound. And
then she swore.
It
was one of her cutest quirks.
Akira
had a tough-bitch persona and her cute sneezes pissed her off like nothing
else.
“Bless
you,” Takuya told her, his slight smile spreading into a real grin for the
first time that day. Psychotic and sensible, vicious and adorable, Akira was a
mess of contradictions that Takuya would never cease to find fantastically amusing.
“Thanks,”
Akira grumbled. Then her voice switched over to a much more cheerful tone. “So,
do you have my umbrella?”
“Yep,”
Takuya told her. “I tried to bring it up to your apartment yesterday, but you
weren’t there.”
“Yeah,”
Akira replied, a slight something in her voice that Takuya’s practiced ears
heard loud and clear. “I’ve been staying with friends.”
“Having
fun?” Takuya wondered immediately. That wasn’t the real story, but Takuya
refused to pry. Asking any questions would only push her away.
“We’ve
been watching a bunch of crazy chick flicks so it’s been pretty cool,” she
replied.
After
a short laugh, Takuya asked, “When do you want your umbrella back?”
“I
can drop by your place this afternoon when you get back from your meeting,”
Akira suggested.
“I’ll
see what I can do to make this meeting finish up early,” Takuya promised.
“Arigatou,
Takuya-kun!”
Quickly,
Takuya added, “And you know, we don’t have practice tonight and I’ve been dying
for a rematch against you at Mario Kart.”
There
was a pause as Akira weighed the options and the earnestness of what he was
saying. She was trying to gauge if he really meant it or if he was just fishing
for an excuse to invite her in for questioning her about what she’d really been
doing at night for the past few days. Fortunately for Takuya, he really did
want a rematch. “That sounds like fun,” she said at last.
“Great!
So I’ll see you in about two hours,” Takuya promised. He would have asked her
about her day, but Bou decided at that moment that he was bored with
antagonizing Teruki and that he
wanted to talk to Akira and announced loudly that it wasn’t fair for Takuya to
monopolize her, especially while on his
phone. Bou stole the phone from Takuya before he could say goodbye, but Takuya
let him take it without much regret. He’d be seeing Akira soon enough anyhow.
Turning
back to his game, the one he hadn’t realized he’d been completely ignoring for
the past few minutes, Takuya realized that Miku had been keeping it going for
him. As Takuya took over again Miku smirked. “Nee, Takuya,” he said, still only
a few millimeters away from Takuya’s face. “You like Akira-chan, don’t you?”
Takuya
jumped. “What?”
Tasting
victory, Miku leaned back. “Normally, you’re
the reason these meetings take so long, since you insist on going over every
little detail. But this time, you want to finish up quick so you can go play
with Akira-chan. You. Like. Her.”GAME
OVER.
So
much for not being distracted. ♡♥Finite♥♡